NCDMB Takes ‘Back to the Creeks’ Initiative to Delta, Deepens Local Content Impact in Niger Delta
By Pan Afric Reporters
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has officially launched and commenced distribution exercise under its Back to the Creeks Initiative in Delta State, reaffirming its commitment to extending the benefits of Nigerian Content development to communities in the Niger Delta.
The initiative is designed to move the impact of local content beyond major oil and gas operational centres into host and underserved communities, with emphasis on education, youth skills development, community enterprise and broader participation in the oil and gas value chain. NCDMB has identified the integration of host communities into the industry supply chain as an important component of its Nigerian Content strategy.
The Board’s Executive Secretary, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, had earlier explained that the Back to the Creeks programme was conceived to ensure that communities benefit more directly from Nigerian Content implementation. The programme includes interventions in basic education, skills acquisition for young people and improved access to finance for community-based contractors.
The NCDMB has also described the initiative as part of its broader human-capital development strategy. At the Practical Nigerian Content Forum, Ogbe said the programme was designed to equip youths with skills required to meet industry demands, while improving basic educational facilities and motivating teachers in rural communities.
The Delta launch therefore represents a further effort by the Board to translate Nigerian Content policy into tangible community-level interventions, particularly in oil-producing and riverine areas where geographical challenges can limit access to quality education, training and economic opportunities.
Under the initiative, NCDMB has previously undertaken interventions targeted at rural communities. In Bayelsa State, for instance, the Board provided a fully equipped ICT centre to Community Secondary School, Sangana-Akassa, comprising desktop computers, internet subscription, servers, an interactive board, printing facilities and solar-power infrastructure. The intervention was presented as part of the Board’s plan to take modern education and skills development to communities under the Back to the Creeks programme.
The Board has equally linked the initiative to its wider objective of achieving greater Nigerian participation in the oil and gas industry. NCDMB has set a strategic target of raising Nigerian Content to 70 per cent by 2027, while stressing that host communities must be integrated into the industry’s supply chain if the target is to be sustained.
With the official launch and distribution exercise in Delta State, the NCDMB is positioning the Back to the Creeks Initiative as a practical mechanism for ensuring that the economic and human-capital benefits of Nigerian Content reach communities at the grassroots, while strengthening local capacity and creating pathways for young people and community businesses to participate more meaningfully in the oil and gas economy.
